It has become clear in the last two or three years that news reporting and gathering is, while much harder on the 24 hour news-cycle gatherers, much easier on the companies footing the bill to release the news. Blogging communities have taken over what only a few specialized groups were capable of, and thats providing the public with news stories ranging from soft news features to hard news, breaking stories. From Pitchfork Media, which covers music stories in the vein of Rolling Stone, to Huffington Post, an aggregate company which compiles news stories dawning on leftist ideals, journalists and their superiors have been able to cut their capital exponentially, and with convenient results. Perhaps the newest of these capital cut backs comes from the Post Intelligencer, a local newspaper out of Seattle, Wa, which in March of this year, put an end to its daunting 146 year career. The Post Intelligencer is just one of many print papers playing the victim to a technological advance too beneficial to pass up, and it is by the estimation of many that the P-I will soon be remembered as a precursor to the untimely...wait, timely demise, of print journalism. As an aspiring journalist, it is somewhat painful to see my dream job crushed under the unforgiving thumb of a dwindling economy. However at the same time, it is extremely exciting to see what the future of journalism holds for its devout employees, and to find myself at a budding junction in the industry is even more exciting.
For more information on the death of the Post Intelligencer, refer to...
http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/post-mortem/Content?oid=1178019
For more information on aggregate news sites, and the realized threat they pose to big print media, refer to...
http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20090406/1515164406.shtml
